


Parent-Child Day

by Cristy_duck



Category: Kinnikuman Nisei | Ultimate Muscle, キン肉マン | Kinnikuman (Manga)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Best Friends, Eventual Happy Ending, Father-Son Relationship, Homesickness, Mentor/Protégé, Mother-Son Relationship, Multi, Nightmares, Parent-Child Relationship, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 11:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20834735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cristy_duck/pseuds/Cristy_duck
Summary: That day was Parent-Child Day for the ML. That meant the parents came to spend some quality time with their sons.However, Mantaro's parents didn't came. He's just upset, he need to talk to someone, when somebody will come interrupt ...





	Parent-Child Day

That day was the day when the parents of the New Generation Chojin arrived in Japan so to spend some quality time with their sons. The Chojin went to the airport in order to take their parents away and, incredibly, even Kevin showed up.

«You know, I didn’t think you would actually show up, considering your relationship with your father …» said Mantaro, his arms crossed and his eyes kind of foggy.

Kevin looked straight in front of him, where the arrivals were, and answered: «My relationship with Daddy got better after my win in the Olympics, even though sometimes we bicker like we never really loved each other … I love him, despite everything. He’s my father, why I shouldn’t love him?»

Mantaro sighed: «Is there nothing you should tell me? Something more, maybe?»

Kevin bit his lips, strengthen his fist and said: «Ok! I’m kind of euphoric because I can see mum after so long … I really missed her. She’s the type of woman that could actually love only one person for her entire life … and it’s what she did with father, even if I were in her shoes, I would actually divorce …»

«Umpf! You’re so dramatic! There’s no way your mother would divorce from your father, because despite everything, my father always told me your father was a really good man … he always helped the orphans or people in need …»

«But he didn’t behave the same with me! Where was the point?»

Mantaro rolled his eyes: «Mh … let’s see … you’re his son … born in a wealthy family … he’s your daddy and he actually deeply loves you … maybe he behaved in that way because he was raised the same way?»

Kevin turned over Mantaro: «Oh, c’mon! Stop acting like you know everything about him! Can’t you just admit he didn’t behave like a father?!»

Mantaro seemed annoyed, and answered: «Yes, I can admit it, but you will never admit that you didn’t behave like a son! How could you run away from home?!»

«What’s the point, Mantaro?! Is there something that tortures you?!» the Brit lowered his voice since everybody started staring at him «Is it because of this day?»

«… maybe.» he saw one of his closest friends silent, waiting for him to speak up «It’s … it’s … I don’t think my parents will come … they’re always so busy …»

Kevin put a reassuring hand on Mantaro’s shoulder: «Hey, don’t be so gloomy! Maybe they can come today … it’s not-»

«Your parents arrived.» froze him Mantaro, turning his back to the exit and going outside.

«What happened to Mantaro, son? He seemed so blue …» asked Robin, putting their luggage on the floor, keeping his hand woven with Alisa’s.

«Your father’s right, Kevin, has something happened?»

Kevin answered after a brief kiss to his mother’s cheek: «He’s just so sad because he thinks his parents won’t come … I feel kind of bad for him …»

«It can’t be helped. – Robin shook his head – They’re reigning, they have so much things to do … even Mantaro knows that … but I still feel bad he can’t have a family moment due to this …»

«Let’s go, I have so much thing to tell you …» concluded the son, taking the luggage outside. He searched for his friend in all the ways he could, but it seemed he just disappeared. Maybe he returned to the park.

***

Mantaro walked without a destination deep into the Muscle League headquarters. He knew he would find nobody, since all the guys were with their parents or family, and he gave Meat a hot springs vacation, so he was really alone that day.

The halls were gloomy, even if there was a great lightning and many windows all the way long, and he could spot some spiderwebs in some of the remotest corners of the walls; no one dared to speak, he could hear the wind whistle or the birds chirp musically if only the windows were open, but that wasn’t a problem, since he didn’t want to hear all that … life.

He crossed his way with the room the Legends usually occupied for their meetings, and there was a graveyard silence – the prove no one was there – so he just decided to train. He didn’t have anything better to do, and he didn’t want to do something that could make him smile because he was very sad … his parents didn’t come …

He entered the training room, changed with his gym clothes and started throwing punches at the sandbag. It took only a few minutes to start throwing a flurry of punches: they were so hard, the sandbag started to break.

And he didn’t notice the two figures that were overseeing him.

«You had a bad day, didn’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t throw punches so hard …» asked Buffaloman.

«… or is something related to your parents? Why are you not with them?» ended Ramenman.

Mantaro stopped throwing punches. The sandbag collapsed at his feet, but he didn’t care. He sighed. Tears were fighting to come down his sapphire-blue eyes, but he could not allow it. He didn’t want to seem … weak. Before answering, he thought that Ramenman and Buffaloman were some of the few that were always there for him … he clearly remembered how Ramenman helped him with his homework and how Buffaloman cared for him at the Factory, despite being the demon teacher … he sighed again. Then he mopped up his tears with a terse gesture. He heard the two of them coming right near him.

«Mantaro …» Ramenman turned him toward «… what’s wrong?» his voice was incredibly tender and calm.

The prince looked him in the eyes, despite these were always closed, and answered: «Mum and dad … they didn’t come. – his tears started falling again, but he wiped them out before it could happen – Ah! … I’m … I’m just so dumb to think they could actually come … don’t I know how many things they must do?!»

Buffaloman hugged him sideways: «Oh, Mantaro … I’m sorry they’re not here … can we do something in place?» even him seemed mortified, seeing his favourite so blue made him guilty without a reason … he just wanted to see that bright smile again, not that dark tears.

«N-No, thanks … I think I’ll just continue training … maybe I can call them after I finish it …» but something wasn’t right, he was trembling.

«Spill it out, Mantaro. What’s that concerns you so much?» continued the Chinese.

The prince looked both of them deeply in their eyes. Tears started to come down, but he didn’t answer.

«Do you want to talk this out in another place? Because I know the right that’ll do it. But first, I don’t want to see these tears ever again, ok?» tried Buffaloman, wiping his tears out with a smile «It’s a promise?»

Mantaro tightened the Spanish’s pinkie: «Uhm … o-ok.» then he followed his mentors that lead him in a clearing where it could be seen most of the Tokyo’s area «I didn’t know a place like this existed …»

«A man I once fought made me discover this out …»

«I think it’s the same man I fought, too …» joked Ramenman. Mantaro sat cross-legged and so did the elders. It was the sunset. «Now can you tell us what burdens your heart so much?»

«It’s … some days ago I talked to mum … I wanted to talk to dad, but she said he wasn’t feeling really good and he was resting in bed when I called … well, a person can get sick, I can allow this, of course, but …»

«But …» said them all together.

«…but I saw what happened to dad when he started aging, and what happened to his body … you may think he just stopped training and fatten, but that’s not true at all; he started having serious health problems … he ate and then he puked out heavily … his joints started to ache and sometimes he couldn’t get out of the bed because of that … before I could know it he lost all that stamina and muscles … I started crying at night, when mum and dad were sleeping, because I didn’t want them to hear me and because I could bear that terror to lose dad and the pain he was suffering so much no more … I started act so tough so they could not see me suffering …»

«We didn’t know this, Mantaro … still, you shouldn’t behave like this … but there’s something more, right?» Ramenman was the less upset of the duo, so he could ask something more. Buffaloman closed himself in a desperate silence.

«I … I thought the worst when mum told me that and … and then I tried to focus on my training but … but after that I had a high fever and I dreamed … I dreamed the worst that could happen to them … it’s … it’s just I don’t have the courage to tell dad how much I hate my life at the moment … well, this situation, of course not my life. I … I feel so alienated and frustrated … I’m in a foreign planet, without my parents or friends, and I must protect people I don’t even know on a planet I don’t even love … I don’t hate it as well, I can say I’m indifferent to it … I’m obliged to do something I always hated, fighting, because I was born in the wrong family … - he cried so heavily Buffaloman and Ramenman had tears themselves - … I … I just wanted an ordinary life … with mum and dad at my side that … that could comfort me when I was scared or shaken … I dream sometimes about them being here at my side, singing lullabies to cast out the nightmares and holding me tight at night, saying everything’s going to be ok … but they didn’t even come here today, probably because of their role as monarchs … can life sucks more? I don’t think it can!» he blew his nose, taking some breath. Now he was a torrent of words, no one could stop him.

«I dreamed about mum and dad being killed … the first was mum, a sort of demon took her life after having raped her … he raped her in front of my eyes, then he killed her with a dagger … he cut his throat open and drank her blood … then he cut her beautiful blonde hair and threw them away, and then he threw her corpse into the flames he cast over all the palace … the last thing I saw of my mother’s body was her right hand stretching for help, before it could be devoured by the flames … then … - he was trembling, that nightmare really scared him in his deepest - … then the demon started to abuse dad … he played with him … he couldn’t defend himself … he teared his eyes and ate them with a satisfying gulp, then he pierced his heart and … and threw daddy’s corpse right over mum’s, and I heard the cries and screams of pain of daddy, because he wasn’t already dead … th-then I woke up, fortunately, because I couldn’t bear it … but then they didn’t come and now I-»

«_Ahora suficiente, ángel. Calmarse. Estoy seguro de que hay una explicación para todo esto_.» the Spanish voice of Buffaloman could calm down the prince, who was now resting with his head on his bosom. It was night already.

«And we can tell it, too.» an alien – but very well familiar – voice interrupted that situation: it was Suguru’s. And along him, there was his sweet-heart, Bibimba. Both looked concerned, probably because they couldn’t find their son. «Ramenman, Buffaloman, thank you for taking care of Mantaro, but now we’re here. Could you please let us alone?» the two nodded and flew away. Suguru sat near his son, and so did Bibimba. Suguru put a hand on his son’s forehead and stated: «You had a high fever last night, Mantaro, didn’t you? You only have that scary nightmares when you have a high fever …»

«You overheard the conversation?»

«Just the part about the nightmare. We wanted to speak but before we wanted to know what made our son so shocked …» said Bibimba, hugging briefly his son sideways.

Mantaro gulped. The bile burned in his throat and in his stomach. His eyes pinched, his mouth trembled: «Why you arrived so late? I thought-»

«On our way here, we faced a magnetic storm. We couldn’t call you and we couldn’t land on Earth. We had to take another space road, and so we wasted many hours. We’re so sorry we couldn’t be here before, we know how much you cared and-» tried his father, but his son spoke up.

«No, you don’t know how much I cared! You _can’t _know! – he stood up, crying – I spend every day, every _damn_ hour hoping to receive even only a message from you, because I miss you more than anything or anyone, and then I can just talk to you by phone for a few minutes because you’re so busy and it’s late and we can’t talk like we used to do! You don’t know how much I hate this fucking life, this fucking situation you put me in, because all I always wanted in this life was to be by my parents’ side because I knew I would always be happy with them, and then you obliged me to become a wrestler and to follow your orders even if I didn’t want to! I spend every day hoping to return home because I feel so lonely and alienated from the rest of the world … everybody laughs at me in secret because of this fucking mask, everybody hurts me every time they joke about me being an alien or considering me a dumb galoot; I try to not consider them but it’s too painful and frustrating and even if I can be strong, I don’t want to be strong, because the only thing that make me feel at home and happy it’s your smiles and your hugs, and you not being here is the most painful thing of all … I can’t bear it no more … I hoped you could be here just for today, and yet you came so late it’s already too late for doing anything … I missed- no, I miss you so much, mum and dad … my heart hurts so desperately every time I think about you … please don’t abandon me here … please …» Mantaro looped back on his self, crying out all his tears.

His parents were astonished. Transfixed by all that torrent of words and emotions. They felt their hearts bleed for the suffering and pain of their son. But they did nothing, other to watch him cry. Finally, when Mantaro dropped on his knees, they both hugged their son.

«Don’t abandon me … please …!» the prince – no, that angel – continued crying «Am I still your baby boy? Am I still your little angel?»

Bibimba felt her soul broken, so replied in tears: «You’ll always be! You always were! There wasn’t a moment I didn’t think about you, my sweet angel! I’m sorry I couldn’t be here with you! I’m sorry I couldn’t be the mother you always deserved!»

«You said this out of egocentrism, right? _You_’re sorry because _you_ couldn’t be here … but my heart is the one which is shattered to pieces …»

«No, no, darling! I could die everyday for you, if this will let you smile!» Bibimba always thought that but never said it out loud … until today. Those words were the first “first aid” the soul of Mantaro needed «And you just don’t know how much I fought against the clan not to make you a fighter … but, in the end, I lost and I had to keep quiet … but I swear that I would kill anyone that hurts you, because I hate and suffer when you cry …»

Mantaro couldn’t speak that his father spoke first: «I just couldn’t know how much suffering I was causing you, my boy … I always thought you were my ever-happy Mantaro, my angel with the smile that always cured my hidden sadness … I’m sorry I couldn’t understand that I was destroying your happiness and was pushing you to the deepest sadness … I just wish I was a better father than what I was …»

«Why you never called or tried to speak with me?! I … I just needed somebody to speak to, someone who could understand me … why you couldn’t be someone who listens?! Why you always have to act like a hero?!»

«I’m sorry, Mantaro, I-»

Mantaro pushed them aside, crossing his arms on his shoulders, like he was feeling cold: «No! Stop being sorry and admit your faults! Because you just don’t know how much I desperately _love_ you, how much I would _die_ for you, how much you’re _important_ in my life! When you didn’t show up this afternoon … I felt my heart breaking like an _earthquake_ … I was so confused and mad … then the anger turned into concern because when I called a couple of days ago you were sick, and I remembered how much you were weary and without strength when your body started changing … I feared I was going to lose you! And … and when you didn’t come …»

«I will always be with you, even if I can’t hug or kiss you on the forehead. It’s true, the last months we didn’t talk so much, and I’m deeply sorry for this, but I promise I’ll come visit you every time I can, right, honey? – Bibimba nodded, wiping out her tears – And the love you feel for me just makes me feel the luckiest dad alive … no other man can desire a son like you, Mantaro … seeing you like this makes me guilty.»

«We’ll try to come to Earth as much as possible, sweetheart, but please, if you need to talk to us about anything, _anything_, _talk _to us, don’t hide everything inside you, because this only hurts you more. – Bibimba kissed his son on the forehead – We’ll never abandon you, understand? We’re your parents, we must protect you.»

«Your mother’s right.» Mantaro calmed down, so the king continued: «Look, it’s past midnight. I don’t think we can do anything as a family, now …»

Mantaro smiled, that bright smile everyone loved, and said: «No, there’s a thing we can do, stargaze. And then we can fall asleep under the stars, like when I was little …»

The parents accepted with a kiss, and then Mantaro hugged them both and lie between them. And they fell asleep as promised, with the stars protecting them.


End file.
